UPDATED: Priests instruct the faithful on Amendment 3 through the lens of the Gospel
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This report includes public testimony from Monsignor Robert Kurwicki, Father Joseph Corel, Father Daniel Merz, Father Christopher Hoffmann, Father Dylan Schrader, Father Richard Frank and Father Gregory Clever.
There are situations when public policy and the Church’s mandate to give prophetic voice converge.
Such has been the case regarding Amendment 3, which if approved by a majority of Missouri voters on Nov. 3 would restrict most elective abortions out of existence while constitutionally banning gender transition procedures for minors.
In an Oct. 4 homily in Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Columbia, Father Gregory Clever pointed out that following Jesus has been controversial for 2,000 years.
“He told us the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are hated and cursed and rejected by the world for his sake,” Fr. Clever noted. “So, we should always expect there to be teaching in every generation that the world hates.”
He said the official position of the U.S. government is that God exists and is the direct source of some of the nation’s foundational rights.
“And when you’re dealing with something that’s such an affront to human dignity as abortion, we have a moral obligation to speak out,” he said.
He called to mind St. Ambrose excommunicating Emperor Theodosius and refusing Holy Communion to him for the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians.
“That was in 390 A.D.,” the priest noted.
Civic responsibilities
Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City, spoke of Amendment 3 in his homily on Oct. 4, which is observed in the Church as Respect Life Sunday.
It was also the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi.
Would St. Francis have voted for Amendment 3?
“Absolutely,” said Msgr. Kurwicki. “Because he was a good Catholic and a good deacon. And a good Catholic is well informed on every single issue they’re going to cast their sacred ballot for.”
Catholics take their civic responsibilities very seriously.
“Elections have consequences, as one of our presidents famously pointed out,” said Msgr. Kurwicki.
Amendment 3 deals with abortion, as well as gender transition procedures for minors.
The amendment would allow for a ban on elective abortions except for medical emergencies, as well as in situations of rape, incest, and fetal anomalies, and when the life of the mother is in danger.
It would also place in the state’s Constitution a ban on puberty blocking drugs and gender transition surgeries for minors, with exceptions for medical conditions.
“The bishops of Missouri have requested us to seriously study and vote ‘yes’ on this amendment,” Msgr. Kurwicki pointed out.
“What God loves most”
Father Joseph S. Corel, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Columbia, preached on Oct. 4 about the innate dignity of all human beings.
“There is nothing loved more by God in all of his creation than you, me and every other person he created,” said Fr. Corel. “So, it’s the Church’s passion to defend what God loves most, his children.”
In the years right after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decisions decriminalizing abortion-on-demand in all 50 states, many in the Church focused on the life of the unborn child.
“That piece of the abortion issue absolutely needs to be taught,” said Fr. Corel. “But as we learned and discerned more, it became clear that if we wanted to save the life of the child, we need to focus on the health and wellbeing of the mother.”
Doing so is not merely a means toward an end.
“The purpose of helping the mother is because she is one of God’s favorite creations,” Fr. Corel noted. “She is his daughter. She deserves love, support, kindness and the real help that she needs.”
All the while, treating her with love and compassion offers a higher likelihood of saving the life of her pre-born child.
Missouri lawmakers enacted a nearly total ban on elective abortions that took effect in June 2024, after the Supreme Court overturned its 1973 decisions on abortion.
Many who opposed that policy worked to have an amendment passed to the state’s Constitution in 2024, enshrining the right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
Narrowly passed, that amendment swept away health and safety standards and inspections for abortion facilities; the ability to sue if a woman is harmed by an abortion or any other reproductive healthcare procedure; the requirement for parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion, and other regulations.
“Can you name another profession where if something goes wrong during the work being done, there is no way to recover damages in a lawsuit from the person who did the wrong?” Fr. Corel asked.
“Ultimately, the Church does not want abortion to be legal because laws are set up to protect God’s most precious creation: humans, including women and children,” the priest stated.
The Church also believes and teaches protecting children outside the womb, including minors seeking abortions and minors seeking gender transition procedures.
Fr. Corel noted that while state law currently bans puberty blocking drugs and gender transition surgeries, those bans will cease to be in effect as of Aug. 27, 2027, if Amendment 3 does not pass.
He said children experiencing gender dysphoria “need guidance based on objective truth, love and compassion.”
Fr. Corel made it clear that the Church transcends political parties and candidates.
“It is part of the authentic teaching of the Church that we work with whoever is in office to the extend possible, and at the same time, we challenge these same people to make just laws,” he noted.
He said feedback from parishioners was mostly positive.
“Some feedback showed that some struggle with the Church’s mandate from Christ to preach the prophetic message,” he said.
They shared their concerns with him respectfully.
“God-given superpower”
“Because no human being belongs to me, none of us has the authority to grant life or to demand it,” said Father Daniel Merz, pastor of St. John Henry Newman Parish in Columbia.
“We belong to God,” he stated from the pulpit Oct. 18. “We have responsibility for one another.”
Supporting mothers and fathers experiencing pregnancy in difficult situations is part of that responsibility, he stated.
“That’s the kind of support that we — as a community, a government, a Church — should be striving to offer women who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy,” said Fr. Merz.
He noted that the discussion becomes more difficult “when you have lots of reasons not to be pregnant now and get pregnant.”
“But that’s precisely the importance of family, community and Church: to remind us that we’re not alone, that we don’t have to do this alone,” he said.
“There is help. We want to help,” he stated.
Fr. Merz lauded women for their “God-given superpower” — the ability to nurture life.
“We need to prayerfully support every woman in remembering how she is beloved by the Father and beloved by his Church, and to encourage and support her to love and nurture, with her superpower, the gift of life within her,” he said.
“Love does no evil”
“The scourge of abortion and the lasting harm done to women and children is unimaginable,” Father Christopher Hoffmann preached on Sept. 6. “We have the opportunity to love, to ‘do what is best for the other,’ for years to come by supporting Amendment 3.”
Fr. Hoffmann is pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in Monroe City and St. Stephen Parish in Indian Creek.
He pointed to a verse from the Letter to the Romans: “Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law,” (13:10).
The Church teaches that love anticipates the purpose of government to secure the best interests of the citizenry.
Fr. Hoffmann said the slim approval of an abortion-friendly amendment to the State Constitution two years ago “did not secure the best interest of the citizens.”
“That amendment meant that abortion was constitutionally protected in Missouri,” he said. “But this November, we will be able to call out evil — specifically laws that ignore the sanctity of human life, the health of mothers and children, and the dignity of the family,” he said.
The goal is to make abortion not only illegal but unthinkable.
“We must first pray,” said Fr. Hoffmann. “We need to continue to pray for all those who have suffered in any way from abortion — women, children and men.
“We need to pray that they be healed, made whole and know God’s loving and merciful forgiveness,” he said.
The priest encouraged everyone to educate themselves about Amendment 3 and the protections it will bring to pregnant women, children’s healthcare and the overall dignity of every person in Missouri.
Bearing witness
Father Dylan Schrader, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Westphalia and St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Folk, preached on a September Sunday about how a narrow majority of Missouri voters in 2024 undid decades of pro-life legislation.
“I talked about how we have a chance to pass a new amendment to restore some of the restrictions on abortion, such as safety requirements and parental consent for minors, and some other things the amendment would do,” he stated
He spoke also of local charities that support women and families.
“I talked about our duty to bear witness to the truth and not simply go along with whatever is happening in our society, but that we have to bring the Gospel to influence the world around us,” he said.
Parishioner reactions were positive. The Folk and Westphalia parishes gave away about 50 yard signs in favor of Amendment 3.
“In one day”
Father Richard Frank is well known for his outspoken preaching.
A retired priest of this diocese, he’s often called upon to offer Mass in place of fellow priests who are away from their parishes.
The past four times he was called on to do so, he spoke briefly after Communion about Amendment 3 and why it matters.
He began with the abortion-friendly amendment that narrowly passed in Missouri in 2024.
“In one day, Missouri, which was one of the preeminent pro-life states in the country, was dramatically changed,” he said.
He cited poll numbers about the number of Missouri Catholics who voted in favor of that amendment.
“I don’t know if we priests failed to emphasize it enough, or they didn’t know what has going on,” he said. “But if only a small percentage of the Catholics who voted for the 2024 amendment had voted pro-life, the amendment would have failed.”
He talked about how passing Amendment 3 this year would significantly limit the number of abortions in this state.
He mentioned how Amendment 3 would restore parental consent when minors seek abortions, would ban puberty-blocking drugs and gender-transition procedures for minors, reinstate health standards, require licensing and allow state inspections of abortion facilities, require only physicians to perform abortions, and restore the 72-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed.
“This amendment will also protect Missourians’ ability to sue physicians or facilities for malpractice due to injury or death from abortion procedures,” he noted.
He concluded: “If you are Catholic and are pro-life — and you’re supposed to be — I encourage you to vote yes on Amendment 3.”
No one objected to him after Mass, but if anyone had, he knows what he would have said:
“I don’t have to be a woman to know that an unborn child is from God. And I have to preach the truth.”
He framed the matter in terms of life and death.
“We either believe we’re talking about a human being or we don’t,” he said. “And if we’re Catholic, we do believe that, and therefore, we defend that person’s life.”
That’s not to say the mother isn’t important — she matters very, very much.
“Sometimes there are problems, sometimes there are difficulties, and we need to be there to help,” said Fr. Frank.
He pointed to the availability of pregnancy resource centers and other sources of help for women who are pregnant and need or in crisis.
“As Catholics, we stand with mothers and their babies, and we stand with the truth,” he said.
“Full stop”
Father Gregory J. Clever, associate pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Columbia, was startled to receive a rousing “Amen” and a standing ovation Oct. 4 after preaching on Amendment 3.
“You never want to preach for handclaps,” he later stated. “What you do want is to preach to change hearts. Hopefully, what I said struck hearts well and made an impact.”
Fr. Clever said being pro-life has been one of the distinctive aspects of Christianity since its earliest days.
“From the beginning, one of the things that made us different from the rest of the world is that non-Christians would kill their babies through exposure if they didn’t want them,” he said.
Non-Christian Romans went on record wondering why Christians wanted to save babies that were deemed not worth saving.
Fr. Clever pointed to the Didache, one of the oldest non-Biblical texts in existence. It codifies rituals and practices for Christians to put the teachings of Christ into everyday practice.
“Didache 2:2 explicitly states, ‘Do not kill children through abortion nor leave them to die,’” Fr. Clever noted.
“Murder of the innocent is not part of being a Christian,” he asserted. “Any Christian, as a distinctive hallmark of being Christian, needs to be against abortion. Full stop.”
Taking a human life because she or he is inconvenient is not morally acceptable.
“I know it can be difficult to bring a baby into the world,” said Fr. Clever. “We’re here to help you with that.”
With responsibility comes accountability.
“In the end, we all make decisions, and we have to stand before God for them,” he said.
Fr. Clever later revealed that he prayed for about three weeks before preaching his message, “because it’s one of the most important homilies I’ve ever given.”
“It also came directly from the heart,” he said. “I think that makes a difference.”
He offered some advice to anyone else hoping to sway hearts regarding Amendment 3 and the rights of the unborn:
“Do it with love. You’re not trying to win an argument. You’re trying to win a heart.”
